HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’s agro-forestry and fishery processing industryhas bright prospects in both export and domestic markets, but needsfurther measures to tap its potential, according to the Agro Processing andMarket Development Authority.

Speakingat a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on July 24, Nguyen Quoc Toan, theauthority's director, said: “The domestic agro-forestry and fishery processingindustry had an annual growth rate of 5-7 percent over the past 10years, creating a system with total processing capacity of about 120million tonnes of farm produce materials a year."

Thecountry is home to over 7,500 enterprises involved in agro, forestry andfishery processing on an industrial scale for export, besides tens ofthousands of small-scale processing facilities serving the domestic market.

“Theprocessing industry has significantly increased the value of Vietnameseagricultural products, contributing to building a modern agriculturalsystem,” Toan said.

However,the industry's development has not been commensurate with itspotential, he said. Shortcomings and bottlenecks in its valuechain include the low level of processing technology, lackof diversity of processed products, and weak linkages amongstakeholders in material supply, processing and consumption.

Dr. Le ManhHung, a representative of the Sub-Institute of AgriculturalEngineering and Post-Harvest Technology in the South, saidthat fruit and vegetable exports increased strongly from 151.5million USD in 2003 to 3.8 billion USD last year. 

“Exportsare expected to continue to rise since Vietnamese exporters haveincreased shipments to high-grade markets such as the US, the EU, Japan, theRepublic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand.” 

However, Vietnam'sagricultural products in general are less competitive than those from moredeveloped countries in the region and the world because of higher prices,he said. 

Heattributed the situation to a lack of post-harvest and processingtechnologies.

Accordingto experts, free trade agreements have opened up opportunities for domesticfood firms to enhance exports.

But tocapitalise on the opportunities, local firms need to invest more in deepprocessing to add more value to their products.

Hungsaid: "To improve added value, besides researching and applying high-techtechnologies to preserve fresh fruits and vegetables, it is necessary to focuson investing in processing technology for frozen vegetables and fruits,and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables.”

Nguyen DinhTung, general director of Vina T&T Group, which exports many productsto the US, said that processing demands could not be met by domesticmaterial supply, which remains the main obstacle for theagricultural processing industry.

Vietnamneeds to create a zoning plan for large scale high-quality material areas tomeet quality, hygiene and food-safety standards in the globalfood supply chain, he said.

Thecountry targets 65-70 billion USD from agro-forestry and fishery exportsby 2030, double the current figure, with its processing technologiesmeeting an average level or above, and some commodities having processingtechnologies at the highest level in the region.

Torealise the targets and to bring more Vietnamese agricultural products todeveloped markets, in addition to enhanced cooperation amongindustry stakeholders, the sector needs support from the Government,delegates at the conference said.

Theinternational conference on “Development of the processing and preservingindustry for agricultural products in the integration period” was held on thesidelines of the Vietnam International Exhibition on Processing, Packaging andPreserving Food and Agricultural Products in HCM City from July 24 to 27.- VNS/VNA